Content is King {Starting a Blog}

Starting a Blog

How many blogs are out there? No one really knows, but a safe guess would be over 100 million active blogs out there, with millions more having been abandoned by their authors. Why abandon a blog? Many people give up due to lack of traffic. Most people who start blogs do so with the intent of making money. Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme. Repeat: you will not immediately be able to be a success as an amateur blogger when you start up a blog. As I have stated before, if you build it, they will NOT come. It takes work, dedication, consistency, good content, and marketing to make your blog successful. It is a non-paying job, and you truly have to love it to stick with it.

There are basically three types of blogs when you look at the concept that “content is king.”

Personal Blogs

Personal blogs are usually started by folks who want to have sort of a web diary, sharing personal experiences. One I love is “His Giant Mistake by Cleo Everest”. This personal blog chronicles life after infidelity and a woman picking up the pieces. I was able to relate to this one after I was cheated on. People can identify with personal blogs and you can often gain a loyal readership. With this type of blog it is easy to connect and interact with your followers because if they are reading your blog it’s usually because they can relate to your situation in some way. Many times these followers are more likely to comment and interact with you than they would be on other types of blog.

Topic Blogs

Topic blogs discuss…topics. Two Chics and a Blog is a hybrid topic blog and personal log. We try to stick to Weight Watchers, Paleo, and healthy living topics, but the blog segues into personal lives of marriage, dating, our personal struggles with weight loss and fitness, and day to day lives. You may find other blogs that focus on beauty tips or fashion or frugal living.

Corporate Blogs

The other major category is corporate blogs, companies blog about their products and promote their brand by blogging They bring solutions to the table for their clients. It’s a smart way for corporations to connect to their consumers.

How Will You Stand Out?

With all the blogs out there, what will you do to stand out? I have read the good, bad, and ugly. Some things to avoid to help you stand out in the crowd:

Proper grammar- know the difference between to, too, and two please!
Spelling- you know, sometimes an error squeaks through. Don’t stress.

Unique & Useful Content

The first topic to discuss is creating unique and useful content. People love to be taught. They do not like to be sold. Teach me all day long, but do not try to sell me anything! Be genuine in your approach. People will eventually want to talk to you if you have something to say or can teach a lesson and readers do not feel you are wasting their time by rehashing the same old stuff they have read one thousand times on other blogs.

What Will You Write About?

What do you love? Write about what you love. For example, my daughter loves ballroom dance. There is a need for blogs about ballroom dance for children. It is a very specific niche of blog to market to the dance community. Will this make it a successful blog alone? No, it might bring about some traffic, but she will have to create interesting content and teach her readers before she will get a lot of interest.

There’s So Much More!

Join us in this new series where we will guide you step by step to build a blog. Content is king. Start with good content. If you do not have that, you will not have a successful blog. In the next few weeks we will discuss all outlets of social media, SEO, analytical to pay attention to, “helper sites” and who we love, and other tidbits of information to help you on your blogging journey.